Our surprise in front of something unexpected has consequences that are rather surprising. Surprise is an emotional response, but also something that reduces our mental defenses and leads us to investigate the surprising event. We then speak about the surprising circumstance with our friends and they will do the same with their friends. Surprise so...
A rather obvious discovery has recently been made by a group of university researchers suggesting that there may be quite a few other discoveries that are out there waiting for someone to come along and unveil them. Little children enjoy listening to stories that adults read aloud to them and usually adults like reading these...
It is well known that tone of voice, face muscles, body movements, choice of clothes and many of our behaviors, whether conscious or not, reflect our moods. We now know that our face skin color changes with our moods and those who look at us perceive our mood because they interpret the colors. Changes in...
If you take the hand of someone who is suffering physical or psychic pain and whom you are fond of, not only will your heartbeats and breathing synchronize but so will specific EEG waves. For the one who is suffering the synchrony of events works as an analgesic. The greater the empathy between the two...
Sitting in the sun favors weight loss and this effect is greatest in the early morning hours. The phenomenon was seen with all other factors being the same (calorie intake, physical exercise, body temperature, hours slept, season etc.). Of the many crucial effects attributed to sunlight one is that of controlling the internal clock that...
About twenty years ago various studies concluded that it is very important to speak to children because there is a close link between the number of words heard and language ability later in life. A new study conducted with instruments that examine brain development and that were not available 20 years ago says that it...
If we understand what is being said when someone speaks to us our brain sends a signal that can be registered on an EEG. If instead we do not understand, or we simply are not paying attention, the listener’s brain does not send any signal. This discovery has many potential applications in many different fields....
The Matabele ants risk their lives in battle every day. Two to four times a day they leave their nests and proceed in columns of about five hundred ants to fight battles with termites at their termite nests. Fierce battles take place and dead termites are carried back home as food. Although the ants are...
There are things we can do alone, things we can do if someone helps us and things we can’t do even if someone helps. The zone of potential learning is the space between what we can do only if helped and what we cannot do even with help. The concept is important for three reasons....
Emotions are contagious. They are passed on automatically, rapidly and frequently from one person to another. Such contagion is at the heart of empathy, social connections and relationships between people. Anger felt by a friend for an injustice or joy for an exam easily spill on to us. We often mime the expressions, posture and...
